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Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), gave the keynote address, "Global Anti-Semitism: ADL's Leadership Role," at the ADL's National Executive Committee Meeting on Feb. 7 at The Breakers in Palm Beach. The ADL, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism (and all forms of bigotry), defending democratic ideals and protecting civil rights for all through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

The Broward Sheriff's Office in Fort Lauderdale recently hosted the annual security conference, "Keeping Your Jewish Institution Safe" in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League. The conference drew more than 100 representatives of Jewish institutions throughout Broward County who listened to topics from security professionals. The security professionals provided the attendees with important updates and other security information. Sheriff Scott Israel explained the BSO's goals for the conference.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's deputy minister of foreign affairs, and U.S. Ambassador Dennis Ross, who represented two presidents in Middle East peace talks and most recently advised President Obama, said last week that the latest international sanctions placed on Iran appear to be working. But both implied that Israel would not stand by idly if Iran's efforts to build a nuclear weapon continue. "Iran will not be nuclear," Ayalon said Friday morning during the opening session of the Anti-Defamation League's annual national executive committee meeting at The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach.

More than 80 Atlantic Community High School students attended the awards ceremony for Advancement Via Individual Determination in the school's media room. The organization came together earlier this year to spread the anti-bullying message of No Place for Hate created by the Anti-Defamation League. "We are tackling an issue (bullying) that the students have experienced first-hand," said AVID teacher Nickoletta Loulis. "Now, we are not just talking about it, we are doing something about it. It's really exciting to see the transformation in attitudes across the campus.

The headline on a recent story in an Israeli newspaper asked if a certain liberal candidate for Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbinate can create a revolution in that traditionally conservative Orthodox body. That liberal candidate is Rabbi David Stav, a modern Orthodox rabbi who suddenly emerged as a viable candidate after the Israeli elections a few weeks ago moved the country from the political right to the center. Stav addressed the more than 300 Anti-Defamation League leaders from around the United States at the organization's recent national executive committee meeting at The Breakers in Palm Beach.

Your Tuesday story, "ADL merges three offices," referring to the Anti-Defamation League in South Florida, stated, "The league, often called the ADL, was founded in 1913." This statement omits the fact that the ADL was founded as a branch of B'nai Brith, and continued as such for many years thereafter. Only in relatively recent years did ADL become a separate entity.

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the spray-painting of swastikas on the walls of a Fort Lauderdale day-care center overnight Sunday in an incident that police are calling a hate crime. "This heinous incident is unacceptable and we ask that the entire community - leaders and residents - stand shoulder to shoulder to publicly condemn this potentially bias-motivated crime targeting the center," Yael Hershfield, ADL interim regional director, said in a statement. "It is imperative that the community sends a clear message that we will not tolerate such cowardly and un-American bigotry," she continued.

Abraham Foxman called it "a speech that I didn't think I'd have to give. " It was a talk on the rise of anti-Semitic acts and attitudes. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he'd planned to give the assessment next year, at the organization's centennial. But he said events in the last couple of months had changed his mind. "However great the progress, complacency is not in order," Foxman told 250 ADL leaders Feb. 10 at their annual meeting in Palm Beach.

In these troubled times, terrorism is no longer a phenomenon soley of middle Europe and the Middle East but has surfaced tragially in middle America. The Anti-Defamation League's now famous report, "Armed and Dangerous," an expose of the violent and bigoted militias, was issued six months before the Oklahoma City tragedy. On other matters, the league has also put on record the hate mongering of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, as well as the Holocaust deniers still hawking their brand of hatred on campuses and communities across the country.

This past month I attended a lecture by the deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League at a local synagogue. Before I begin my critique let me put the current level of anti-Semitism in this country in perspective. About ten years ago the American Jewish Committee reported that 85 percent of Americans would welcome a Jew as a son or daughter in law. Doesn't sound like an avalanche of anti-Semitism to me. The Pew Research group recently found that 10 percent of Americans would not vote for a Jew as president even if he or she were qualified.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Florida last year declined from 2012 figures, Anti-Defamation League Florida Region director Hava Holzhauer told a Na'amat Broward Council luncheon audience at the Woodlands Country Club in Tamarac recently. But Holzhauer added, "You no longer need Jews to have anti-Semitism. You have the Internet. " She called it "a super highway for hate. " The Anti-Defamation League's Florida office is working to combat hatred in the state, Holzhauer said.

Coming on the heels of the recent deadly shooting at a Kansas City Jewish Community Center, which has been deemed a "hate crime" by authorities, the Anti-Defamation League, last week designated another South Florida High School as "No Place for Hate. " Royal Palm Beach High School in Royal Palm Beach was tapped for the ADL honor on April 10, during a special presentation ceremony at the school as part of its anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying campaign. ADL's No Place for Hate campaign empowers schools to promote respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and bigotry.

For the fourth consecutive year, there has been a drop in anti-Semitic incidents in Florida, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which released its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents on April 1. There were 68 anti-Semitic incidents in Florida in 2013, marking a 23 percent decrease from 88 in 2012. According to the Audit, this drop in Florida coincides with the decade-long decline nationwide, reaching one of the lowest levels of incidents reported by ADL since the Audit was established in 1979.

The Anti-Defamation League and Miami Beach's public schools agree that bullying is no laughing matter. As part of a community-wide anti-bullying campaign, the ADL recently designated all eight public schools in Miami Beach as No Place for Hate during a special banner presentation ceremony at North Shore Park Band Shell in Miami Beach. This campaign empowers schools to promote respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and bigotry. Each school earned this special designation by completing at least three school-wide anti-bias activities this year that promote diversity.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), gave the keynote address, "Global Anti-Semitism: ADL's Leadership Role," at the ADL's National Executive Committee Meeting on Feb. 7 at The Breakers in Palm Beach. The ADL, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism (and all forms of bigotry), defending democratic ideals and protecting civil rights for all through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

The Slow Burn Theatre Company production of "Parade," the story of the 1913 trial of Leo Frank in Marietta, Ga. and his lynching two years later, shows that bigots and anti-Semites must be exposed for who and what they are, Lonny Wilk, Anti-Defamation League Florida associate director, said Sunday during a "talk-back" with members of the audience at the West Boca Performing Arts Theatre. "The impact of this story is something that needs to be told," Wilk said. He implored the audience to tell family members, friends and neighbors about the production and "fill these seats" for the musical that runs through Feb. 9 at the theatre on the campus of West Boca Raton Community High School.

While not exactly the infamous, "Sieg Heil" Nazi salute that evokes images of hate and horror — the trendy French "quenelle" hand gesture which strongly resembles a downward-facing Nazi salute, has Jewish leaders increasingly concerned. The hand gesture, which is growing in popularity, notably among athletes, foreign soldiers, and YouTube fans, was initiated by French performer Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala in 2005. M'Bala's fans often send the entertainer photos of themselves performing the gesture, occasionally in front of French synagogues and Holocaust memorials.

A former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation provided a keynote presentation on the same event that a local lawyer was honored. In honor of the Anti-Defamation League's centennial, Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, provided the keynote address during the annual Miami Jurisprudence Award Luncheon at InterContinental Miami. Lewis S. "Mike" Eidson of the law firm Colson Hicks Eidson in Coral Gables received the ADL's 2013 Miami Jurisprudence Award during this luncheon.